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The Aftermath of the Aformentioned

So, actually, a pretty productive weekend. Did some editing, did shopping, did writing, did TV watching, had diner with friends, stayed out of trouble. As of last night I climbed over the five thousand word mark in the new novel, which is about where I expected to be after a week–well, eight days, but there were a couple of days there where I didn’t actually do a lot or any work on the new novel, so more like five thousand in six days.

I quibble.

And that brings us to the post of the morning:

“Thanks, Cassie: I wondered when you were getting to the point.”

I do get there, eventually.

If scene one was a lead-in to a flashback, and scene two was the flashback, then it only seems to reason that scene three is gonna bookend scene two. And that’s just what happens: we now head back to the House by the Lake and finish up what was started a few thousand words back:

(The following excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Three: C For Continuing, copyright 2016 by Cassidy Frazee)

“You jaunted out of their house?” Annie leaned forward and snorted. “I wonder how shocked they were by that?”

Berniece snickered before taking a sip of her tea. “Quite a lot, I imagine.”

“Did Kerry know you were going to do that?”

“No. I thought it best he not know.”

Annie nodded in agreement. “Probably would have made him more nervous.”

“And that was something he didn’t need.” Berniece set her cup and saucer on the end table next to her chair. “I didn’t want to add to the stress he was already under.”

“Then why did you jaunt out?”

“Why not? His parents knew I was witch, so why pretend that I can’t do simple magic?”

Annie couldn’t argue with her logic. Magic is something we do; why pretend you can’t? “I imagine Kerry had to explain what happened.”

“More than likely.” Berniece sighed. “Poor kid.”

Having Ms. Rutherford jaunt right out of sight while standing in front of Kerry’s mom probably didn’t help Louise’s nerves much, though I imagine Kerry probably chuckled after that happened. Ah, just wait until Kerry starts doing that: he’ll be like Carl and never stay inside the house. Though that might not be a thought that went running through his mom’s mind at that moment . . .

“Why didn’t you stay with him?”

“Because his mother and father wanted me to leave, and to go against their wishes would have created a situation.” Berniece passed her hand over her tea cup and a wisp of steam rose from the water. “We’re instructed to become confrontational only if necessary, and it wasn’t necessary. Not at that moment.”

Annie didn’t belabor the point: it didn’t take much imagination to see the harm that would be caused by an Aware case worker getting into a fight with the Normal parents of a young witch. It would hurt Kerry more than help him if she’s refused to leave. “Have you heard from him since last night?”

You could say, “She should have stayed there while Kerry’s parents ripped him a new one for no good reason,” but why? To force yourself into the conversation? To prove you’re not going to let the Normal people push you around ’cause you’re one of the Aware and better than them? Bang-up job you’re doing there to keep people from shitting themselves, because you’re not helping your cause by being an asshole to the parents.

It’s really a shitty place to be, but Ms. Rutherford will say things later on to support why she doesn’t think it’s a problem. Besides, it was pointed out that Kerry can stand up for himself these days, though when it comes to his parents, there’s still a lot of internalized conflict there.

Now, has Kerry contacted his case working? Well . . .

“No.” She removed her mobile from her purse and checked something. “I had a Watcher go by his house around twenty-two thirty last night, and their message then said that he was up in his room at his desk doing something while his parents where still in the family room watching TV and talking.” She put her phone back in her purse. “No messages this morning, but that’s not usually. They’ll likely take a pass by his house before noon.”

“I see.” Annie didn’t find it unusual that a Watcher had checked in on Kerry, or that Berniece asked for the check-up. “How long will that continue?”

“For the next few days. Just to make certain things haven’t turned bad.”

“You don’t expect that, do you?”

“No. But best not to take chances this first week.”

“True.” Annie cleared her throat. “May I ask a question?”

Berniece sipped her tea before answering. “Go ahead.”

“May I see what you really look like? I mean—” She gave a small grin. “You showed Kerry.”

“Oh, of course.” In seconds Berniece shifted from her older, more adult appearance to her unaltered appearance. “Sorry: guess I’m still in the habit of looking that other way.”

“You’ve had to look that way with us for a year and a half, so I see how it might be hard to break.” Annie reexamined her guest. “You do look young.”

“Remember this when you’re my age: you’ll look the same.”

Now you know that Ms. Rutherford showed up in “older mode” when she walked into the Lake House, and part of that may have been due to knowing she might meet Annie’s parents. She can do away with that now because, well, the magical cat is out of the bag, and there’s no need to hid among your own kind–a phrase she used with his parents, and which may have not been the best phrase to throw out there.

The process here with the excerpts will be to put out about five hundred words daily, while writing a little more than that every night when possible. That way I stay ahead of posting and don’t feel pressured to get the new content in before putting it out for all to see. Right now I’m two posts ahead, and if I can get another six hundred into the story tonight it’ll stay that way. I do hope to not feel pressured to write, because in the last few months of the last novel the pressure was there in droves, and I really want to avoid that at all cost right now.

Right now, the only one who should feel pressure is a certain ginger in Cardiff…

6 thoughts on “The Aftermath of the Aformentioned”

And what would they say? “You have to come help us, our son is a witch and he just returned from witch school and we’re afraid he’s going to do magic on us.” And the cops would look at each other and then tell them to get the hell back home

And if they did get a cop to come home to talk to Kerry, he’s just gaslight the cop. “Um… you really believe that? Look–” (pretends to do magic, nothing happens) “Do I look like a witch?”

They could be wondering about Kerry: “Do you think he’s up there doing witch things?” “Which witch things?” “That’s not funny.”

And Mommy is probably gonna start keeping an eye out for letters from Bulgaria . . . “Kerry, is this girl a witch?” “Yes, Mom.” “And does she have a broom, too?” “She doesn’t need one–” “What does that mean?” “Never mind, Mom.”

The question now becomes if Kerry can get away with doing magic around the house in front of the parents. Or are they gonna freak every time he levitates something?

Remember, though, Kerry has said he father doesn’t understand him, and that may because his dad has become quite the professional person and Kerry’s still something of a dreamer and not much for management. He may see Kerry as being more serious now, but at the same time Kerry is off doing his own thing and has taken his own path.

Kerry’s still this geeky dreamer, only now he can look at you and set you on fire.

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

I’m running really behind today, so here is the rest of the scene with Coraline discussing the aftermath of “hook up” with the boy from her fight team. And here, as well, you discover why she called herself Nurse Coraline for so long. It’s really logical… (The following excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Three: […]